Psychological Explenations For Anorexia Nervosa, Cognitive Learning Theory Flashcards
(11 cards)
What’s the main premise of the cognitive explanations for AN
That AN is caused by cognitive distortions about body weight and shape
What are the three main cognitive factors that people with AN experience in their life
-Cognitive distortions
-Irrational beliefs
-Cognitive inflexibility
Cognitive distortions
-Faulty and irrational ways of thinking about ourselves
-AN people suffer from disturbed perceptions where they’re preoccupied with thoughts about food, weight and body shape, overestimating their size and weight, leading to food restriction
-The more disturbed the perceptions, the more critical an individual is of their own body
-This causes them to interpret emotional states as ‘feeling fat’
Research for cognitive distortions, AO1/AO3
-Williamson
-Wanted to see if people with AN are having cognitive distortions/ overestimating size and weight
-37 ppt with AN used a body image assessment to estimate their current body size and indicate their ideal size
- + a control group without AN
-Participant with AN were significantly less accurate in estimations and also had ideal bodies that were significantly smaller than control
Irrational beliefs
-People with AN experience automatic negative thoughts which are illogical and defy rational sense
-All or nothing thinking-If I’m not thinking, I’m fat
-Catastrophising-I ate a biscuit, I’m going to gain so much weight
-Perfectionism
How is perfectionism as irrational beliefs
-It’s the belief that as an individual, you must meet extremely high standards that you set for yourself ie. Academic brilliance
-This is often connected to people making sure they reach an ideal weight goal
-When these goals are met, AN sufferers just raise the standard and keep pursuing the same unrealistic goal
Cognitive inflexibility
Treasure and Schmidt-the cognitive interpersonal maintenance of AN
-AN suffered experience problems with set-shifting - when you have to switch to another task which requires a different cognitive skill set
-Once an individual thinks they have to lose weight, they persist and continuously lose it even when their goal is achieved
-They find it hard to switch to a healthier cognitive mindset
Research support, cognitive distortions
Sachdev
-fMRI AN patients and non AN patients
-Both were shown images of their own and other people’s bodies
-The same brain activity was shown when displayed with images of other people
-But, AN patients showed very little activation in the attention area of the brain when displayed with images of themselves
-Cognitive distortions limited to one’s own body
Real world applications
-CBT
-attempts to change patients faulty cognitions and irrational beliefs about their body, food and weight loss
-Research found that CBT lead to increased weight and decreased concerns about body image in 26 women hospitalised with AN
Contradicting research, cognitive distortions
Cornelissen
-Asked women with and without AN to do a computer morphing task where they adjusted a computerised image of themselves to match their body
-They found no significant difference between the two
Extra PEELs
Issues with causation
